Gold Coins Found Turn Out To Be Stolen

Posted on October 20, 2017Posted by newuser

Joan Langbord thought she found treasure after she opened a family safe-deposit box that had ten gold coins within it back in 2003. At the time, Langford was 75. Working in her late father’s jewelry store all of her life, she had no reason to belive anything was wrong. However, she was sure the coins were double eagles from 1933. The 1933 double eagle is one of the rarest coins there are.

445,500 Double eagles came into mint back in 1933. Each coin had a value of $20. 500 coins stayed at with the U.S. Mint’s cashier, and the rest of them were sent way in a vault. During the time, people were hoarding gold due to the depression, so President Franklin D. Roosevelt pulled any gold coins out of circulation. People hoarding the gold made for depletion. After some time, the mint gave two of the 1933 double eagles to the Smithsonian. The rest of the coins were later melted in the bars and left at Fort Knox.

Woman Turns In Gold Coins From Father

Or were they? Reports from 1940 showed that private collectors were trading the fascinating coins. The news shocked officials at the Mint, thus sparking an investigation from the Secret Service. Agents found out that a cashier was able to smuggle out some of the coins. Ten of the coins were traced back by the Feds to a jeweler in Philadelphia by the name of Israel Switt. Switt is Joan Langbord’s father! At the time, her father sold the coins to private collectors.

In 2004, Langbord took her coins to the Mint for authentication. She thought that her father owned the coins legally. Also, she was hoping to make around $40 million from the coins.

However, the Mint refused to authenticate the coins. Instead, they confiscated the coins, claiming that the coins are the property of the U.S.

Two years later, Langbord sues not only the Mint, but the Treasury, and many other Federal officials. In her claim, she said that during 1933, there was a time before Roosevelt pulled the gold, that her father could have purchased the coins legally. She did not win the suit. Due to the government maintaining the account that the coins were indeed, not truly his.